Migrating from Earlier Releases

Overview

IBM Mobile Foundation v8.0 introduces new concepts for application development and deployment, and some API changes. Learn about these changes to prepare and plan for the migration of your MobileFirst applications.

Multi-channel API creation and management

Create and define API Connect-compatible Swagger REST APIs in Foundation v8 then Manage and Secure them in API Connect

Changes in the development and deployment process

For a quick hands-on experience of the development process with Mobile Foundation V8.0.0, you can review the Quick Start tutorials.

In this version of the product, you no longer create a project WAR file that needs to be installed in the application server that is running MobileFirst Server before you can upload your apps. Instead, MobileFirst Server is installed once, and you upload the server-side configuration of your apps, of the resource security, or of the push service to the server. You can modify the configuration of your apps with the MobileFirst Operations Console. You can also upload a new configuration file for your apps by using a command-line tool or the server REST API.

MobileFirst projects no longer exist. Instead, you develop your mobile app with the development environment of your choice. You develop the server-side of your application separately, in Java™ or in JavaScript. You can develop adapters with Apache Maven or a Maven enabled IDE such as Eclipse, IntelliJ, and others.

In previous versions, applications were deployed to the server by uploading a .wlapp file. The file contained data that described the application and for hybrid applications, the web resources. In v8.0, the .wlapp file is replaced by an application descriptor JSON file for registering an app to the server. For Cordova applications that use Direct Update, instead of uploading a new version of the .wlapp, you now upload a web resource archive to the server.

When you develop your app, you use the MobileFirst CLI for many tasks, such as registering an app to its target server or uploading its server-side configuration.

Discontinued features and replacement path

Mobile Foundation V8.0.0 is radically simplified compared to the previous version. As a result of this simplification, some features that were available in V7.1 are discontinued in v8.0.

Migrating adapters and security

Starting with v8.0, adapters are Maven projects. The MobileFirst security framework is based on OAuth, security scopes, and security checks. Security scopes define the security requirements to access a resource. Security checks define how a security requirement is verified. Security checks are written as Java adapters. For a hands-on experience with adapters and security, see the tutorials for Creating Java and JavaScript Adapters and Authorization concepts.

MobileFirst Server operates only in session-independent mode and adapters should not store a state locally to a Java virtual machine (JVM).

You can externalize adapter properties to configure adapters for the context where they run, for example a test server or a production server. But the values of these properties are no longer included in a property file of a project WAR file. Instead, you define them from the MobileFirst Operations Console, or by using a command-line tool or the server REST API.

Migrating push notifications support

The event-source-based model is no longer supported. Instead, use tag-based notification. To learn more about migrating push notification for your client apps and your server-side components, see Migrating push notifications from event source-based notifications and Migration scenarios.

Starting with v8.0, you configure the push service on the server side. The push certificates are stored on the server. You can set them from the MobileFirst Operations Console or you can automate certificate uploads by using a command-line tool or the push service REST API. You can also send push notifications from the MobileFirst Operations Console.

The push service is protected by the OAuth security model. You must configure server-side components that use the push service REST API must be configured as confidential clients of MobileFirst Server.

Changes in the server databases and in the server structure

MobileFirst Server enables changes to app security, connectivity and push without code change, app rebuild or redeployment. But these changes imply changes in the database schemas, the data stored in the database, and the installation process.

Because of these changes, Mobile Foundation does not include automated scripts to migrate your databases from earlier versions to V8.0.0 or to upgrade an existing server installation. To move new versions of your apps to V8.0.0, install a new server that you can run side by side with your previous server. Then, upgrade your apps and adapters to V8.0.0 and deploy them to the new server.

Applying a fix pack to MobileFirst Server

Find out how to use the Server Configuration Tool to upgrade MobileFirst Server V8.0.0 to a fix pack or an interim fix. Alternatively, if you installed MobileFirst Server with Ant tasks, you can also use Ant tasks to apply the fix pack or interim fix.

To apply an interim fix or fix pack on MobileFirst Server, choose one of the following topics based on your initial installation method: